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Noel Gallagher has spoken about the continuing appeal of 'Don't Look Back In Anger'.

The songwriter turns 50 this weekend, and took time out to chat with Radio X presenter Jon Kennedy.

The conversation turned to the Oasis classic 'Don't Look Back In Anger', prompted by an emotional rendition earlier in the week.

Following a minute's silence held for the victims of the Manchester Arena terrorist attack the crowd gave an impromptu rendering of 'Don't Look Back In Anger' - an incredible moment, in a week filled with so much sorrow.

"Honestly as the years have gone by, it’s like that song is now more important than I’ll ever be," he explains. "You know, there’s footage on the internet now of people singing it in Manchester with candles and all that and you know, it’s kind of, it is incredible to think that a few generations now have attached some kind of importance to that song."

"There was mine, and it was passed on to another generation and that song now has become a hymn to something or other. You know I still play it – whether I play acoustically to 100 competition winners or I play it to 70,000 people at a festival – it still works. There’s not many songs you can say that about. I certainly can’t say that about all my songs."

"And you just sit there sometimes and think, ‘you know, I probably only have to introduce it and play the first chord. I could probably walk off then and nobody would notice’. You know, because there’s just people with their eyes shut, crying and stuff, and it’s like a… It’s an amazing thing. It’s something I never kind of take for granted either, you know." Asked if he felt humbled, Noel replied: "It makes me feel – is it proud, the word I’m looking for?"

"I don’t ever sit there and think that I wrote that, you know. I think it came from somewhere else. I think it was a song that was there somewhere, and if I hadn’t have written it, you know, Bono would have written it. You know, it’s like those great songs, ‘One’ and ‘Let It Be’ and yeah, I did just compare myself to Paul McCartney there. You know, they’re there. If they fall out the sky and land on your lap, then lucky you."

So, one more time...

What A Life! Noel Gallagher at 50 on Radio X, Sunday (May 28th) at 8pm.